Bible school English credit?

[Miss Marple]

My ds is a senior and has plans to attend the spring semester at a Bible school in Capernwray England. This will wrap up his senior year. Through some issues at the local community college, our plan for him to take Freshman Comp 1 to fulfill his senior English credit will not come to pass easily (it will be a driving nightmare).

 

In thinking about it, though, I wonder if the Bible school experience will give him the coursework that I could count as an English 12 (Literature 12) course. He will be reading, analyzing, looking at historical context/relevance, and writing. I would not be able to transcript it as "Bible" because that is usually considered an elective.

 

If you have any thoughts, please let me know. I can do something else if I need to to fulfill that through standard curriculum, but I started thinking that I might not need to do that if the Bible school experience would fulfill the requirement. Also, if you believe it would work, how would you list the course on a transcript?

[Julie in MN]

I would not be able to transcript it as "Bible" because that is usually considered an elective.

 

I think you could call it "Biblical literature" or "Bible as literature" or something "Biblical" and it could clearly be an English credit.

[Kareni]

I would also suggest Bible as Literature as a course title.

 

Here are the course description and course objectives for a class of that title from Syracuse University:

 

"Course Description: The Bible is famous for its religious and cultural significance, but it also contains great literature that has wielded huge influence over later writers and readers. This course examines the narratives (stories) of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) from a literary perspective. It addresses the distinctive form and ideology of biblical stories, as well as the feature they have in common with other ancient Near Eastern literatures. It raises the problem of conflicting interpretations and the degree to which literary methods can settle such disputes. And it explores the elusive boundaries between history, fiction and religion.

 

Course Objectives: The goals of this course goals are to have students:

 

1. gain an understanding of the contents and nature of biblical narrative;

2. develop competence in using a variety of literary approaches to the interpretation of biblical literature;

3. use the narrative literature of the Hebrew Bible to think both critically and imaginatively about the nature of religion as a basic response to and expression of the human condition;

4. develop an understanding of biblical narrative as a key instance in the diversity of human religious phenomena, and achieve a fluency in interpreting and describing it."

 

and another course description from Delaware County Community College

 

"In this course, students will be introduced to the many types of literacy genres in the Bible. Students will learn how to approach, read, and study the Bible as literature, with a focus on narrative (the predominant genre), poetry, and parable.

 

Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

Understand the origin and development of the Bible.

Identify the major themes in the Bible.

Understand how to read the Bible as literature.

Identify and explain the elements of Biblical narrative.

Write a paper explicating the literacy elements in a Biblical narrative, including the historical and cultural context of the narrative.

Identify and explain poetical elements in a Biblical poetry passage.

Recognize the literacy features of parable."

 

Does the Bible School have its course descriptions on line?

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Miss Marple]

Thanks, Julie and Kareni. I could not find a course schedule or specific course information (just more of a general overview) on the specific school's site, but another school under the same guidance did have a specific course schedule. That was helpful and I think would easily match with the information Kareni supplied. The Bible as Literature seems to work well as a title, and I actually found a high school that had this same course title. In the description it did include "this is not Sunday School" :D Hopefully admission counselors will be familiar with this type of course.